Distance around Shapes
10 min
Narrative
The purpose of this Warm-up is for students to visualize the idea of perimeter and elicit observations about distances around a shape. It also familiarizes students with the context and materials they will be working with in the next activity, where they will use paper clips to form the boundary of shapes and compare or quantify their lengths.
Launch
- Groups of 2
- Display the image.
- “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”
- 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
- “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
- 1 minute: partner discussion
- Share and record responses.
Student Task
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Sample Response
Students may notice:
- There are some paper clips on two sides of a quadrilateral.
- The paper clips cover only parts of the two sides.
- There is a pile of paper clips on the paper.
Students may wonder:
- Are the paper clips to be used to build the shape?
- How many paper clips would it take to make the shape?
- Why are there only 4 clips on the sides of the shape?
- How many paper clips are in the pile?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
- “Can you predict how many paper clips it might take to go around the whole shape?”
- Consider asking: “The paper clips in the picture are standard paper clips. If we use jumbo paper clips, which are larger, would we need more or fewer paper clips to build the shape?”
Standards
- 3.MD.8·Solve real world and mathematical problems involving perimeters of polygons, including finding the perimeter given the side lengths, finding an unknown side length, and exhibiting rectangles with the same perimeter and different areas or with the same area and different perimeters.
- 3.MD.D.8·Solve real world and mathematical problems involving perimeters of polygons, including finding the perimeter given the side lengths, finding an unknown side length, and exhibiting rectangles with the same perimeter and different areas or with the same area and different perimeters.
15 min
20 min
Knowledge Components
All skills for this lesson
No KCs tagged for this lesson
Distance around Shapes
10 min
Narrative
The purpose of this Warm-up is for students to visualize the idea of perimeter and elicit observations about distances around a shape. It also familiarizes students with the context and materials they will be working with in the next activity, where they will use paper clips to form the boundary of shapes and compare or quantify their lengths.
Launch
- Groups of 2
- Display the image.
- “What do you notice? What do you wonder?”
- 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
- “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
- 1 minute: partner discussion
- Share and record responses.
Student Task
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
Sample Response
Students may notice:
- There are some paper clips on two sides of a quadrilateral.
- The paper clips cover only parts of the two sides.
- There is a pile of paper clips on the paper.
Students may wonder:
- Are the paper clips to be used to build the shape?
- How many paper clips would it take to make the shape?
- Why are there only 4 clips on the sides of the shape?
- How many paper clips are in the pile?
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
- “Can you predict how many paper clips it might take to go around the whole shape?”
- Consider asking: “The paper clips in the picture are standard paper clips. If we use jumbo paper clips, which are larger, would we need more or fewer paper clips to build the shape?”
Standards
- 3.MD.8·Solve real world and mathematical problems involving perimeters of polygons, including finding the perimeter given the side lengths, finding an unknown side length, and exhibiting rectangles with the same perimeter and different areas or with the same area and different perimeters.
- 3.MD.D.8·Solve real world and mathematical problems involving perimeters of polygons, including finding the perimeter given the side lengths, finding an unknown side length, and exhibiting rectangles with the same perimeter and different areas or with the same area and different perimeters.